บท 13: Chapter 13 - Marking The Spot
Zenith felt nothing. His body was numb and felt like it was being pulled by a magnet, his very atoms stretching. It lasted only a half-second before he entered the other side. There, he looked around, seeing Fable already gazing around with a device on his eyes, no doubt acting like binoculars.
"Familiarize yourself with the layout and how a relic site looks," Fable suggested. Zenith then did so. He first looked up and gasped. It was white, all just white like a canvas. He felt he had seen this sort of thing before. "The nightmare I had..." He then shook his head; it's obviously just coincidence. After all, pure white was pure white; it was used in a lot of places.
Though he felt a warm light despite there being no sun, for as far as he could look, there were no objects in the sky in any direction, only the portal behind them. Zenith then looked around. He felt no breeze, but the grass extending out in every direction seemed to be moving as if there were. More so, there were stone pillars in every direction, in no special pattern or format, many broken, many pushed over, some even missing, their indentations on the grass still present.
There was no spot or area that looked damaged, as any damage done to the ground or grass would seemingly, by some supernatural force, fix itself to a brand new state after an hour. Even with this, no one could dig down past a foot deep. Fable then called out, "You ready? Let's go explore!" He excitedly spoke.
Both he and Zenith began walking, both using their eyes rather than the devices. After all, everything at this point was most likely searched to hell and back. "Urgh, this place cost us 300,000 credits. We only got 2 more purchases left, or we will be broke as broke can be! Unable to even fuel our ship or feed poor lil' Mirabell," teasing his sister's endless appetite. "We are relying on you, trainee. Be the golden goose we need!"
Zenith felt a little uncomfortable, which made Fable laugh. "Relax, I'm just messing. Do your best; most of all, safety first. Except the part about going broke—actually, if this doesn't go well, we will have to take some more IOUs from the Federation bank, and that's if they don't demand we pawn the freighter."
Zenith pursed his lips, sighing a little. A half-hour in, they split up after confirming there was no danger, though Fable told Zenith to stay within earshot, to which he did. Zenith was moving from pillar to pillar, examining each one with a thoughtful expression.
"Smooth to the touch stone pillars, each exactly identical to the others, a grassy plain, but why stone pillars? Why pillars though?" He looked around, using his own eye device to expand the distance. He gazed over, seeing Fable focusing seriously. After all, Allspace and his family were all he had left; he couldn't afford to not take it seriously.
Zenith seemed thoughtful. "I read that humans seemed to like puzzles and stuff. Is this really made by them, or is it natural? If it's man made, did they know people would come here?" Looking thoughtful, he was told by Jenabell that the portals would stay open indefinitely unless closed from one side but could be reopened as long as the requirement of a flat surface was met and there was enough space.
The device itself was indestructible; the Federation and other factions had tried to destroy them, from throwing one into a star, a black hole, and other methods, yet not once had one been destroyed. The only thing that was known was each relic site had a purpose, and for most of them, once that purpose was fulfilled, they would permanently lock once everything of value was taken out, and all people who entered it had left.
The only situations where a relic space wouldn't close were situations such as those spaces with slowed or sped-up time, places with useful areas such as special locations for mining material, or that could be used as a headquarters due to a base being found that could be inhabited.
Other situations that Fable had told Zenith about was a time where an ancient warship was found. It was the current largest vessel in the Federation, used as their flagship and defending the capital. The relic device had expanded itself to accommodate the warship being able to exit from this space into the other side.
There were a lot of cases of teleportation devices becoming unusable before turning to dust after their purpose had been fulfilled, but not enough to make a dent in the stockpile of devices.
"So these have an obvious purpose. They are a trial of sorts maybe? Then what about the higher-ranked ones?" Zenith knelt and toppled a pillar. It made a thud on the grass, to which he knelt down and examined the spot of grass where it was previously atop. "There has to be a trick to this."
Zenith enjoyed puzzles; it gave him a way to test his mind. He suddenly blinked, his heart skipped a beat after he was looking around from his position.
His device, from where he stood at the exact point of the toppled stone pillar, showed he was exactly 25 meters away from every other pillar. "25 meters!?" He then stood up and suddenly rushed off towards the portal. While he did, he looked at every pillar, even the toppled ones, hoping to gain something more in this flash of inspiration.
Fable looked at Zenith and was surprised. "Zenith!?" He stood up and began rushing over. Soon Jenabell spoke from the comms, "What happened? Is everything okay?" She spoke with worry, Mirabell's tune sounding as well. "Zenith is rushing to the teleporter for some reason. I'm following," Fable replied. He soon caught up with him, seeing Zenith panting and gazing in every direction downwards. "What's wrong? Are you okay? You didn't have a mental breakdown from looking too hard, right? We can't afford a therapist," he tried to add a joke to lighten any potential bad mood Zenith had.
"25 meters!" Zenith spoke. Fable looked confused. "25 meters?" He pondered, thinking Zenith really had lost his marbles. Zenith noticed the odd look Fable gave him and explained, "Every single pillar is exactly 25 meters from each other, from base outwards!" Fable blinked, quickly using his device as a range detector.
"Yep, 25 meters. Humans are oddly specific. Does it have meaning?" Zenith sighed a little. "There has to be something else though. There are 16 pillars, give or take a few that are broken. Look, you can still see the grass is pressed down from where they were atop."
Zenith's eyes lit up for a moment. "That's it!" He rushed over to a pillar nearby the portal with eager nervousness and excitement. He began to gaze intently at the grass. "Fable, what's wrong?" Fable laughed quietly. "I think our newbie has either lost his mind or is onto something."
Fable walked over to Zenith, suddenly seeing him clawing at the grass and then dirt, even using the gauntlet's augmented strength to get large handfuls. "What are you doing? Digging is useless, remember?" Zenith then grinned and spoke, "Damaging the area will recover in an hour, right? Even the damaged grass?"
Fable nodded, still a little confused. "And?" he said. Zenith simply grinned as if motioning towards the grass pressed by the pillars despite it being tumbled over. Fable blinked for a moment before his eyes widened in shock. "T-the grass under where the pillars were hasn't recovered? Does that mean it can be dug deeper!?"
Zenith excitedly spoke, "Well, we'll soon see!" Zenith remembered he had a switch tool on his belt. He quickly pulled it out, forming a mini shovel. He then used it several times before he heard a clunk after hitting past the 1-foot mark.
Both he and Fable were silent, both gulping. Fable then pulled out his own tool, helping Zenith dig more and more until they saw it was a weird-feeling metal container shaped like the pillar. Zenith grabbed what looked like the handle of it that was large, and Fable helped. They pulled at it, yet despite the dirt, it seemingly slid out like butter.
They both fell back, gazing at it. The container looked exactly like the pillar, yet it had no markings and was made of a strange material that emitted a quiet hum. It soon tipped over, falling on its side. Zenith crawled over and gently touched it, causing the container to emit a series of mechanical clicks, opening and releasing a soft steam before opening.
Soon, what was revealed was shown to Zenith. He looked curiously, not sure what to make of it, but when Fable saw it, his eyes lit up, trembling with excitement! "WE'RE RICH!!!!!!"
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